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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

POLITICAL NEWS: Security Flaw Found In Diebold TS Voting Machine

A California based non profit election organization has reported finding what "may be the worst security flaw" in one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States.Open Voting Foundation president, Alan Dechert has confirmed that upon examining the inner workings of Diebold TS paperless touch screen voting machine, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version.

"Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant. If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver."

This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail . There is no way to check if the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.

"These findings underscore the need for open testing and certification. There is no way such a security vulnerability should be allowed. These systems should be recalled" Alan Dechert, President Open Voting Foundation

Open Voting Foundation is a non-profit orgnization dedicated to demonstrating the need for and benefits of voting technology that can be publicly scrutinized. The groups mission is to educate the public, governmental officials and entities concerning elections systems based upon open source software, and further to promote the adoption of open source voting and elections solutions worldwide.

The members believe vote tabulation must be publicly observable. They also believe proprietary hidden software code makes public observation of tabulation impossible.